The snakes are out!!!!

[adamanteus]

Anji, never tell anyone exactly where these Butlers are!

[enigma200316]

Anji, never tell anyone exactly where these Butlers are!

good sound advice James I agree.............

[anji1971]

Well, I want the right people to find them -- it's important for study. It's the multitude of pre-adolescent boys constantly trooping through the place I don't want to find them.

[adamanteus]

Anji, you are the 'right people'!

[anji1971]

Anji, you are the 'right people'!

Awwwww, thanks James! That's one of the best compliments I've had in a while!

[Zephyr]

Adolescent boys who want to take them home, keep them in a dark room with a hot rock and feed them goldfish. x.x

[adamanteus]

I really mean it. You could watch them, photograph them, count them and chart their progress. Observe their feeding preferences, take note if these preferences are seasonal etc. No one needs to know where you're doing this work. It is people like yourself, who can, through micro-habitat study, advance our understanding of these small populations. Let's just call the location 'Anji's Pond'.

[adamanteus]

Adolescent boys who want to take them home, keep them in a dark room with a hot rock and feed them goldfish. x.x

I think the biggest threat is people who want to collect a couple of dozen and sell them for a quick profit!
Let's all agree now never to buy protected species which we suspect to be illegally wild caught. If we, as THE Thamnophis forum, don't do this, who will?

[anji1971]

I agree, James!
That is exactly why, even though I could have just kept my mouth shut (or my fingers off the keyboard, in this case!) and pretended I'd just found a T.s. sirtalis, I decided to make it known, and return him to where he should be.
I am definitely going to keep looking for them, although I don't know how closely I'll be able to study them, since my little pond is a fair distance from my house. And let me tell you, anybody I see catching snakes there is going to get a good lecture on species identification, and the importance of protecting endangered creatures!

[Stefan-A]

I think the biggest threat is people who want to collect a couple of dozen and sell them for a quick profit!
Let's all agree now never to buy protected species which we suspect to be illegally wild caught. If we, as THE Thamnophis forum, don't do this, who will?

I'm prepared to make that promise. Not that it's very likely to happen, but anyway.

I'm not so sure about who is the biggest threat. Individuals collecting just one snake for their own collection may very well have an impact comparable to those who collect dozens for sale. Depending on the ratio. I know I'm not going to convince anybody not to collect wild garters, but if you do collect them, you better breed them.